Filtered By: Topstories
News

Merci team defends inclusion of dead exec in charge sheet


The camp of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on Wednesday denied committing a blunder in the plunder case her office recommended against former Agriculture officials allegedly involved in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam. The Office of the Ombudsman was criticized for including two persons in the plunder charge sheet — a deceased Agriculture executive and a possible state witness. However, lawyer Tomas Syquia, Gutierrez’s spokesperson, said former Department of Agriculture (DA) Cagayan Valley Regional Executive Director Gumersindo Lasam, who died in April 2009, was included in the charge sheet because Office of the Ombudsman has not received a notice about his death. “Unless there is official notification of death by defense counsel with a death certificate, a person is not automatically dropped from the case," he told GMA News Online in a text message Wednesday. He added that Gutierrez’s office did not take into consideration Lasam’s “reported death," dismissing it as “hearsay." Not yet state witness Meanwhile, Syquia said including a possible state witness in the charge sheet was also not a blunder. Syquia said whistleblower Jose Barredo was named in the charge sheet because he was not yet a state witness. “Under the rules of court, you have to be charged first and then apply to be state witness," Syquia said. The Ombudsman’s spokesperson added that it's up to Barredo’s counsel to request the Sandiganbayan for state protection now that plunder charges have already been recommended against the witness. The Whistleblowers Association of the Philippines, a group of witnesses to large-scale anomalies during the previous administration, earlier cried foul over the inclusion of one of its members, Barredo, in the plunder case. Former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who chaired the Senate panel which probed the fertilizer scam in 2005 and 2006, likewise expressed surprise over Barredo’s proposed prosecution, describing the whistleblower as a “credible witness." Plunder case Lasam was among the nine regional officials that the Office of the Ombudsman recommended charged for plunder and graft before the Sandiganbayan for their alleged involvement in the fertilizer fund scam. The Ombudsman also recommended plunder raps against former DA chief Luis Lorenzo and former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc" Bolante, who both served under the administration of former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Both Lorenzo and Bolante have denied involvement in the supposed anomaly. The fertilizer fund scam involved P728 million allotted for the purchase of fertilizers for farmers in the country, which was allegedly diverted to the Arroyo’s election campaign fund in 2004. Gutierrez, also an Arroyo appointee, is currently facing an impeachment case in Congress for her alleged inaction in the fertilizer fund scam and four other high-profile cases. – VVP/HS, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT